On February 11, a news conference focused on World Safer Internet Day was convened at the press center of MIC Izvestia. Experts explored the tactics of internet fraudsters, strategies for safeguarding personal data, and cybercrimes involving artificial intelligence.
Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Informational Policy, Technologies and Communications, reported that in 2024, the total damage inflicted on Russians by IT fraudsters surpassed 170 billion rubles, with phishing remaining the most prevalent type of fraud in Russia. Anton Nemkin highlighted that in the previous year alone, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) restricted access to nearly 70,000 phishing websites following court decisions and requests from the Prosecutor General’s Office. Concurrently, the number of attempts by Russian users to access phishing pages almost quadrupled compared to the same period in 2023.
Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, also addressed the issue of phishing. He referenced data from the Domain Patrol project, which has blocked over 50,000 fraudulent domain names in the national .RU and .РФ zones since 2012. The average response time to phishing websites, from detection to complete blocking, is approximately 15 hours, whereas the global average stands at 24 hours.
“Although we have observed a significant decrease in the number of detected phishing sites over the past year, we cannot relax – fraudsters have shifted from domain name systems and fake phishing sites to operating in social networks and messengers,” cautioned the Director of the Coordination Center.
Moreover, the threat from malicious actors affects all age groups, not just the older generation.
“The key to overcoming fraudsters is education. This involves continuous education, skill enhancement, improving digital competencies, and fostering a critical approach to information received online. These habits need to be instilled not just from school age, but earlier – from kindergarten. Our children already use gadgets in kindergarten; they are full-fledged participants in the information society. Therefore, they need to be taught safe internet technology skills as early as kindergarten,” explained Andrey Vorobyev.
The Director of the Coordination Center remarked that in 2024, the share of crimes involving computer technologies reached 40% of the total, indicating that nearly every second crime in Russia is committed using computer technologies.
“Any information security is a narrative of the battle between “projectiles and armor.” Over time, new technologies emerge, such as artificial intelligence, which, on the one hand, assists fraudsters in creating deepfakes, and on the other, aids specialists in identifying malicious actors,” concluded Andrey Vorobyev.
The press conference also featured Karen Kazaryan, Director of Analytics at the Digital Economy Autonomous Nonprofit Organization; Urvan Parfentiev, Coordinator of the Safe Internet Center; and Vladimir Zykov, Director of the Association of Professional Users of Social Networks and Messengers.
The full video of the news conference is available on the MIC Izvestia website.
